Charter Schools

Live webcast of interviews of charter school applicants
Today! The State Board of Education's Committee on School Initiatives will continue to interview applicants seeking a Generation Fifteen open enrollment charter. The committee chair has announced that the meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Sep 2, 2010, 08:41

Charter school in SW Houston remains closed
School across Houston has been in session for more than a week, so why are students at one local school still on vacation? [ View Article ] Sep 1, 2010, 08:15

Imagine Schools: PR Spin Hides Ohio Failure; FL, AZ Schools in Trouble
Aug 27, 2010 – Today, with the release of academic ratings for the 2009-2010 school year, the state of Ohio found significant academic improvement for three Imagine community schools. Imagine Harvard Avenue Community School, Imagine Clay Avenue Community School, and Imagine Academy of Columbus jumped two rankings attaining “Continuous Improvement,” meeting adequate yearly progress, and demonstrating value added with “above” one year of learning gains. [ View Article ] Aug 31, 2010, 07:00

National Education Association leader opposes more Texas money for charter schools
AUSTIN – Texas will be headed down the wrong path if it invests more money in its network of independent charter schools, the president of the National Education Association said Friday, citing mixed student achievement results in those schools. NEA president Dennis Van Roekel said efforts to expand the charter school program in Texas and other states ignore the track record of those schools and their lack of success with many students. "If you look at the research for charters, the results are not there. You cannot make a case that we ought to invest more money in charter schools based on the research," said Van Roekel, a former math teacher from Arizona who heads the 3.2 million-member teacher union. He visited schools in Austin and San Antonio on Friday as part of a multistate back-to-school tour this week. [ View Article ] Aug 30, 2010, 07:35

Temple: Local charter school growing
Construction delays won't keep the Temple Education Center from a successful school year, officials say. Despite numerous setbacks, students and staff at the Temple Education Center started the new year temporarily at Lakeview Baptist Church until their new campus is completed. [ View Article ] Aug 30, 2010, 07:26

KY: Lack of charter schools costs Kentucky millions in federal education money, officials say
Kentucky was shut out again Tuesday in its bid to win $175 million in federal funding to improve its public schools — and the state's education chief says the lack of charter schools is to blame. [ View Article ] Aug 26, 2010, 07:00

Investing in charter schools a smart idea for Texas
The members of the Texas Charter Schools Association recently met to discuss the State Board of Education's preliminary decision to construct and lease facilities to charter schools using half of 1 percent of the Permanent School Fund. We solidly support a plan that simultaneously benefits the state and the charter school movement. Investing in charter schools is a smart idea for the future of Texas. Rising in prominence thanks to bipartisan support, charter schools are free public schools that vary in mission and model to provide a more personalized learning environment for students. In many Texas communities, the local charter school presents a viable choice beyond the traditional public school and a private school. The distinct ability to offer tuition-free, quality options across our state absolutely empowers Texas families. Real choice means real chance. [ View Article ] Aug 20, 2010, 08:34

Texas would benefit from investing in charter schools
Texas Charter Schools Association supports the State Board of Education's preliminary decision to build and lease facilities to charter schools using half of 1 percent of the Permanent School Fund. We believe that benefits both the state and the charter school movement. Investing in charter schools is a smart idea for the future of Texas. [ View Article ] Aug 20, 2010, 07:51

Premier is top ranked charter campus in Texas
Fitting with its name, Premier High School of Abilene is the No. 1 ranked alternative education accountability (AEA) campus in Texas, based on the school’s TAKS results. At Premier, a Responsive Education Solutions charter school, 98 percent of students met the standard on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Premier ranks at the top of Texas’ 141 AEA campuses, which gave a minimum of 200 tests in 2010. [ View Article ] Aug 20, 2010, 07:44

Beeville: SMACS students start year at ‘exemplary’ rated campus
St. Mary’s students had something to celebrate their first day back at school. For the second year in a row, St. Mary’s Charter School has been rated exemplary by the Texas Education Agency. “I do challenge the children, but they thrive on challenges,” Brown said. “It is a different type of competition, I urge them to compete against their own personal best and improve on it. [ View Article ] Aug 20, 2010, 06:44

Pharr San Juan Alamo: PSJA, IDEA, partner to set up RGV Center for Teaching and Leading Excellence
It is rare for a charter school, a public school and a non-profit to form an alliance in order to improve teaching standards but that is what has just happened in South Texas. With a mixture of philanthropic and federal funding, IDEA Public Schools, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD, and Teach for America are going to establish the Rio Grande Valley Center for Teaching andLeading Excellence. [ View Article ] Aug 18, 2010, 07:42

Donna: Valley charter schools tout 10 years of success
Scores of students, parents and teachers came together 10 years ago hoping for better education. In one week, they exhausted their elbow grease by clearing brush, painting walls and installing ceiling fans and carpet for the first IDEA charter school in Donna. [ View Article ] Aug 16, 2010, 07:35

Growth in Charter Schools
Across the state, charter schools are growing by leaps and bounds and some are even expanding like Cumberland here in Tyler and they say they're just doing this to house a growing number of students... [ View Article ] Aug 16, 2010, 07:18

Charter school opens in Dayton Aug. 23
A new charter school is currently enrolling students and is set to open for the first day of school on Aug. 23. Premier High School, a public charter school, will be located on the property of Eastgate Church. The school is a public facility and is only leasing the land from the church, according to Principal Dennis Love. [ View Article ] Aug 4, 2010, 07:37

Examining Texas Charter Schools
Austin, TX - The Texas Board of Education has agreed to tap into the trust fund for charter schools, but what impact will that have. David Dunn, executive director of the Texas Charter School Association, stopped by Good Day to talk about this. [ View Article ] Aug 2, 2010, 07:50

Austin: Downtown charter school could be forced to move
With less than a month before school starts, a charter school with an emphasis on media arts and civics education now needs a new place to teach its students. [ View Article ] Jul 29, 2010, 07:46

Editorial: Texas should help charter schools with facility costs
Social conservatives on the State Board of Education have gotten banged around considerably – justifiably, in our view – in recent years for their questionable decisions about Texas' history standards, science goals and student textbooks. But this time, they have it right. Many social conservatives on the elected 15-member board want to give charter schools access to the state's primary school fund to help the independent public schools build or purchase facilities. This is a common-sense argument to improve this important piece of the educational puzzle. [ View Article ] Jul 28, 2010, 08:35

Charter schools could get new landlord
SBOE: Charter schools could get future help with their facilities problem after the State Board of Education approved a plan allowing for a small investment of the $22 billion Permanent School Fund in real estate property for those quasi-public schools. [ View Article ] Jul 26, 2010, 08:37

SBOE strikes again — loans for charter schools
SBOE:You have to hand it to the far-right faction on the State Board of Education. They never seem to run out of bad ideas. This one is really terrible — a $100 million loan program for facilities for charter schools. The constitution vests in the SBOE the responsibility for managing the state’s endowment for public [ View Article ] Jul 26, 2010, 08:37

Charter school investment plan gets approval
The balance of the State Board of Education tipped Friday in favor of using money from Texas’ public school endowment to finance charter school facilities. The absence of Rick Agosto, D-San Antonio, from the dais on Friday morning gave supporters of the charter school proposal the one-vote margin needed to dedicate $100 million of the $23 billion Permanent School Fund to the investment approach. [ View Article ] Jul 26, 2010, 07:37

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